New Roadkill Map Finds California 'Ring of Death'

Yahoo News ^ | 04/20/15 | Becky Oskin

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Northern California's car-clogged freeways run through thousands of acres of protected wetlands, creating a "ring of death" east of San Francisco, according to an ongoing study. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have plotted some 29,000 reports of roadkill to identify the most hazardous roadways for the state's wildlife. The volunteer reports, collected over the past five years, cover more than 40 percent of California's highways and roads. Tracking roadside carcasses may sound odd, but the endeavor can reduce deaths for both drivers and wildlife, the scientists said. For instance, the study found many hotspots where animals are repeatedly killed by cars and trucks. Adding crossings at these hotspots, such as underpasses or land bridges, could improve safety. "Larger animals can cause fatal collisions and people will sometimes swerve to avoid smaller animals," said Fraser Shilling, co-director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, which coordinates the study.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I hope the animals get this memo...or we can shut down the roads all together...The whack left would love that!

[Veggie Todd]

...or we can shut down the roads all together...

I'm sure Moonbeam is already exploring that idea.

[DannyTN]

Just move the animal crossing signs to where cars are less likely to hit them. /s (Heard a radio clip where a caller was insisting this was the solution.)

It sounds like they need some good fencing along those highways.

[Don Corleone]

Ban Animals. Ban People. Ban everything. Vote Democrat!

[AngelesCrestHighway]

You are correct...If they can spend state funds to create a “Roadkill Map” you know they are headed in that direction.
Prohibited driving from dusk til dawn/reduced speeds...A crap bag full of Lefto lame ideas...

[AngelesCrestHighway]

The mere use of words like “Ring of Death” tells you what’s coming...

[cripplecreek]

Its not unusual to see 6 or 7 dead deer per mile around here.

[headstamp 2]

This is easy. Install more windmills to balance it out.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

The incredibly rare overpopulations of squirrels and deer are showing us our very own Malthusian future. For the children! The deer children!

Of course, we could exchange roadkill squirrels for windmill-kill red tail hawks on a government-sponsored exchange on a 1:100 basis and find yet another way to hire 34,500 workers to scrape them off the roads and paste the dead animals to a carbon guilt wall, to be built in Bakersfield, with a newly designed bullet-train stop planned for the site. Careful studies (which only cost $378,000, itself an excellent deal) have projected the roadkill museum and Gaia memorial to attract 17.4 million people over the next 20 years. I think it’s worth it. Plus, they will sell plastic bottles of reclaimed bottled water for $6.50 each so the concession will generate several additional million dollars a year in revenue.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

This one?

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=RFCrJleggrI

[Rebelbase]

Brings back a childhood memory of riding on a newly opened section of blood stained and carcass laden Interstate in central Louisiana that was an armadillo and possum slaughterhouse.

[Red Badger]

Ring of Death around Uranus...................

[kiryandil]

Yes, I think the California government should make cars and trucks illegal.

To save the endangered Land-Walking Snail Darter.

[artichokegrower]

Wonder if there is correlation between this and the location of Chinease restaurants in California?

[DannyTN]

Can’t watch youtube from work. Whoever it was, the DJ was very respectful and tried to tell the lady caller that the animals couldn’t read the signs. But she just didn’t get it.

[Gritty]

Cars are obviously killing innocent and endangered species outside the major cities teeming with the huddled masses.

The Kalifornia answer will be it is time to ban unregulated and dangerous car travel, require everybody use Light Rail and other forms of green public transportation instead, and move all the wild-specie murderers into apartment block high rises in the cities so everything can be controlled, er, I mean eco-friendly and the endangered species can live safely and we can live together in ecologic harmony.

Pass the unicorn poop pudding, please...?

[Hot Tabasco]

Coons and possums everywhere around me......

[cripplecreek]

Oh yeah. Plenty of those too. Roadkill muskrat season coming up too.

[driftless2]

So many critters are mowed down every day by automobiles around my parts I sometimes wonder how many have been snuffed every year. It seems mostly raccoons and squirrels are the biggest victims. Deer, opossums, woodchucks, and a few other critters also get their share.

[vette6387]

“Wonder if there is correlation between this and the location of Chinease restaurants in California?”

Wrong, Outside SF, it’s Vietnamese restaurants. They actually have a new cookbook out, entitled “How to Wok Your Dog!”
But the real problem here is that the bulk of our “critters” have no natural enemies (like coyotes and Mt. lions). We’ve lived on our 1.5 acre place since 1984. The wildlife has increased over the years even with the expansion of residential construction. It is not unusual to come home and find a half dozen deer lying on the front lawn, and they don’t even move when we drive up. They give you this look “look, they’re home.” More recently we’ve been indated with wild turkeys, and thanks to a the local Rossmoor Leisure World “community” deciding that having peacocks (and peahens) around would be a “neat idea,” we now have some of their “escapees.”